The tragic life of the queen

In 1277, the Swedish King Magnus III and his wife Queen Helvig from Holstein were born Princess Ingeborga. Eleven years later, i.e. in 1288, this young princess was engaged to the Danish king Eric VI Menved. Their marriage was concluded in 1296, and in 1298 the brother of Ingeborg, King Birger of Sweden, married his daughter-in-law, Princess Martha of Denmark.

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Both of these marriages were for dynastic purposes, but the marriage of King Birger and Princess Martha was not carried out in accordance with the plans of the Danish and Swedish courts. The church fought King Eric and refused to give him permission to have his sister marry her son-in-law, because there are very strict rules against marriages between relatives. The marriage of King Birger to the sister of his brother-in-law was considered "incest".

Perhaps many of their superstitious contemporaries saw the marriage of these supposedly close relatives as the cause of the failure that befell Ingeborg after her marriage to King Erik Menved. It so happened that in the subsequent years of her marriage she gave birth to 8-14 children. We do not know the exact number, only 8 of her children were boys who died shortly after birth.

She was a beautiful and quite popular queen, but it seemed that she had no political influence. Her life and mind filled the suffering of her dead children and the thought of her unfortunate position as queen.

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However, in 1318 she gave birth to a healthy boy. It was such a relief for her, as for the queen and just as for a woman. Everyone welcomed her when she showed her son to the public from the window of her crew, but, unfortunately, she did not restrain a small child who fell to the ground and died from injuries.

According to some legends, after this tragedy she was later forced to leave the palace and go to the monastery. It was said that she herself made this choice, because she could not meet her old age as a queen. A year after the death of her son, she died herself, soon followed by her husband, King Eric VI Menned.

He died in 1319. As ruler, King Eric VI Menned failed in all areas and followed his queen. So he solved his personal problems, and Denmark was bankrupt. However, strangely enough, he and his queen after death were shrouded in a halo of romantic charm. Romantic literature devoted a lot of work to them. In Denmark they are loved today.